With a little more than 24 hours until the application deadline, only one person has qualified for one of the two open positions on the Lowndes County School District board.
In November, there will be two seats on the LCSD board that will be voted on by residents in Districts 1 and 2, respectively. Terms for the school board are six-year terms.
Jane Kilgore, current LCSD board president and District 1 representative, has qualified to run for another term in her seat. So far, she is unopposed.
However, current board member and District 2 representative Brian Clark is not seeking re-election and no one has qualified so far with the circuit clerk’s office to take his place.
The deadline for qualifying applications is 5 p.m. Friday. Deputy Circuit Clerk Ann Marie Langford said if no one qualifies for the District 2 spot by then, someone will be appointed.
Clark, who has served on the board for 12 years and is also the chief executive officer for 4-County Electric Power Association, told The Dispatch he is not going to run again citing his work and his wife’s work.
“4-County’s business has grown, and 4-County’s FASTnet has grown,” Clark said, referring to the power cooperative’s efforts to bring broadband internet to its rural service area. “I’m really busy doing those two ventures. Also, my wife may go back into teaching at some point. She taught for the city for eight years, and I have to be off the board if she wants to be a teacher in the county.”
Clark said he hopes whoever fills his seat on the board looks out for all students within LCSD. He thanked the board and LCSD residents for their support for his time on board.
“I just want to thank everyone for supporting me in my years on the school board, and I learned a lot,” Clark said. “I’m a better person for having served, and it’s not been easy. There have been years when it’s been difficult. At the end of the day, anytime you can serve other people, I feel like you get a reward from it.”
Kilgore said she decided to run again because she wants to continue to help the district make progress and she did not want two new people both trying to learn the ropes of the board. She said as someone with more than 16 years on the board, she hopes she can aid whoever takes Clark’s seat in their new role.
“I think with my knowledge of being on the board and knowing how the system works that it would be an advantage,” Kilgore said. “It takes several years to learn everything that you can do and can’t do, the rules and regulations. I just want to keep on improving what we’ve got right now.”
District 1 includes Caledonia and Steens.
District 2 runs south of Kilgore’s and spans from Columbus Air Force Base east to the state line and south to the northern boundary of the Columbus Municipal School District.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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